Struck by Lightning
by 61wisampa
Summary: The third and final round between the Imagine Breaker and the Lightning God begins, but this time, it isn't a battle of strength... it's a fight for a certain Railgun's Heart. - Sequel to What Causes a Spark - Post-NT10


**Between the Lines**

When she read the message on her phone, it had felt like she had been submerged in ice.

"What is this?"

_Requesting the death of Magic God Othinus and Kamijou Touma who is traveling with her._

_'..traveling... with her...? ...him?'_ Mikoto refused to believe it. She didn't know what had happened to him but she wouldn't believe it.

There was no way he could betray them like that.

She clenched her trembling hands into fists.

The whole world was after him right now. She had no idea where he had gone or what the hell he was planning, but _she has to find him first._

_'You... Idiot!'_

With her goal set, she ran to the nearest aircraft that had recently arrived in Sagrasso, unaware of the tears that had begun to run down her cheeks.

–

"You really are quite stupid, Kamijou-kun," Thor mumbled under his breath as he looked over Sagrasso on Tokyo Bay.

A moment later, he vanished, leaving no trace he was ever there.

–

–

_'Of all people...'_

"Just to be clear, I'm not about to join your side for no reason. I'm not that convenient a girl."

Kamijou Touma froze as the figure in front of him glared.

"I've hacked all of this firepower." she said, spreading her arms wide as if to show off, "If you don't want to die here, then defeat me and continue on!"

_'...you too?'_

But he knew what he had to do. He had to stand up against her to save the girl that the whole world wanted knew she wouldn't understand even if he told her. And if she did, she would hate him for taking away such a happy world.

At the memory of her smiling face in that perfect world, he began to hate himself a little. It was him who had taken away that smile. He shouldn't expect her support this time. He didn't deserve it.

There was no use trying to convince her.

And so he clenched his fist, no matter how much his heart thundered painfully at the thought of fighting her.

He knew it was stupid to ask, but he did anyway, "...are you mad?"

Her gaze sharpened in anger, but she replied in a calm voice, "Yes, quite a bit."

He hated himself a little more.

Then she screamed in a raging voice, "When did you become a spy for Gremlin?!"

–

–

She somehow managed to find him.

She somehow managed to defeat him.

_'...it's a lot emptier than I thought it would be...'_

He had no idea how _betrayed_ she had felt when he suddenly turned his back against her.

He had no idea how much it _hurt _when he stood against her like an enemy.

Kamijou Touma deserved a serious beating after pulling off a stunt like that. She shouldn't forgive him. She shouldn't support him.

Not when he hadn't even tried explaining it to her before she tried to beat an explanation out of him. Even now, she still couldn't understand.

_'...then... what am I still doing here?'_

She sat beside his unconscious form, hugging her knees to her chest. It was the first time she had hugged him, but it was nowhere near her silly romantic ideas filled with falling cherry blossoms or beautiful sunsets.

The first time Misaka Mikoto hugged the person she loved was to hurt him.

...ah... now she knew why she felt so empty...

"Aren't you going to take him back?"

She tilted her head slightly, catching a glimpse of the Magic God the idiot was protecting at the corner of her eye.

"...shouldn't you be running away?"

"You didn't come here for me, unlike those other resistances." The Magic God stated calmly, "You came here for him. You travelled all the way out here to ask him why he betrayed you."

"He didn't—" she tried to deny it but she couldn't lie. Because at the end of the day, that was still how she felt when he left without a single word. "You're right," she agreed grudgingly. She gritted her teeth, mumbling, "But he did it for you."

"But he still did," she sent the Magic God a glare, but the girl didn't seem at all intimidated by it, "And yet, that doesn't seem to be the source of your anger."

She averted her gaze, her anger increasing at the Magic God's strange aptitude of reading her. Of course she wasn't mad that _that idiot _chose to save this girl. But why hadn't he trusted her enough to explain before running off with the whole world chasing after them? If she hadn't intervened, he would've surely died fighting or trying to escape all these FIVE_OVERs. She could've helped him. _She would have helped him_.

She buried her face into her arms, unsure of what to do. From what he had told her, something she couldn't understand happened that brought about a _'perfect world'_ where all her Sisters were alive, where she didn't have the blood of 10,000 people in her hands. He was helping the Magic God because it was that girl that had made _that world_ real.

But he took that away because of his selfish desires.

He wanted to save the Magic God because he felt that the girl did nothing wrong, that she was actually the good guy in all of this. He turned his back on the world because he believed it was him who was truly evil.

_"__Of course, I'm going to change my mind... You were smiling. You may not remember, but in that golden world, you were truly happy and smiling!"_

_'Even if I was smiling... did you really think I'd accept a world where you weren't happy?'_

"Hey, Magic God," Mikoto called out without moving, "Tell me... did this idiot force his help on you?"

There was a pause before the girl replied, "I'm not the only one I see..."

"No," she agreed, giggled humorlessly, "And you probably won't be the last."

"Just how many lives has he saved before this?"

"Too many to count," Mikoto jokingly answered, "But with me, he didn't just save my life."

The Magic God was quiet as she waited.

Mikoto took a deep breath and released it in a gust. Smiling with her resolve renewed, she looked at the Magic God, "He saved _me._" She told the girl, "And I'm sure he'll save you too."

The girl only offered a smile, seemingly accepting her announcement.

_'That's right,' _Mikoto thought, looking up at the sky as she leaned back on her arms, _'He's always done what he thinks is right. I'm sure it's what he's doing now.'_

After another moment of silence, she once again spoke, "Hey, Magic God?"

There was no reply from the girl that she was even listening, but Mikoto continued anyway.

She met the Magic God's gaze, "Don't let him die."

–

–

When he came to, he was expecting to be loaded in some sort of aircraft headed for Academy City. He never expected her to be sitting quietly by his side.

"Are you awake now?"

He blinked once, his mind registering the fact that she was in fact still there and that they didn't seem to have moved. Even sitting down, his limbs felt numb. He doubted he could even clench his fist.

He tried it anyway and groaned at the pain that came, "Yeah."

He remembered what she told him. All this time, he had thought that she would hate him. All this time, he had thought she wouldn't understand.

As it turned out, it was him who didn't understand. His _'perfect world' _hadn't been so perfect after all. The smile he had seen was Misaka Mikoto's but it was not _hers_. He had not destroyed that world because of his own selfishness.

He brought back the world where everyone had been born.

In the end, she had saved him from himself.

_'What have I been doing all this time?'_

He wanted to thank her, to tell her how much her words had meant to him, how it had saved him... but words couldn't even begin to express what he felt. And thinking to how much he had hurt her because of his _betrayal..._ he didn't even feel worthy to tell her 'thanks'.

"Sorry, Misaka," he told her softly instead, standing up, "I'll be going."

She remained seated on the pile of snow and looked up at him, "Because you have to?"

"No," he answered whilst wiping the snow off his clothes. He had realized his mistakes now. She had made him realize. "Because I want to."

When he said that, she merely shrugged, a small pleased smile gracing her lips. "Then how about you get going?"

He turned to her, his brow rising sceptically, "What, you aren't going to stop me?" he asked almost jokingly.

"I can't." She said, "I may have easily beaten you ten minutes ago, but I doubt I could beat you now no matter what I did."

He looked at her for a moment longer, simply amazed by her trust. But then he steeled himself and turned around, walking back to the place he needed to be.

He could feel her eyes on him so he raised a hand in parting, but he did not look back. He was afraid of what he'd do, because if he looked at her face for a second longer, he would've begged her to come with him. He wanted her by her side.

But the world was after him and he couldn't do that to her. He couldn't let her get caught up in something he wasn't sure he'd be able to survive.

So he kept his gaze forward, because after everything she had done for him, protecting her this way was the only thing he could do.

–

–

Thor stopped when he saw an unmistakable lightning bolt strike down from the heavens and hit the earth. Not a millisecond later, there was an explosion.

He hurried to the place, fully certain that it was Mikoto who was there. He wasn't surprised that she came here, but her reason still brought a little bitterness in his mouth. Because even after everything that Kamijou had done, her trust on the boy never wavered.

_'Kamijou-kun, you lucky bastard...'_

He arrived at the place just as another explosion occurred. From what he could see, there were over fifty mantis-like cyborgs flying around. He roamed his eyes frantically around in search of the girl but what he saw were several beams of light shooting out of the machines' arm.

It was a railgun.

Thor cursed under his breath, realizing only then that those cyborgs must have been designed after Mikoto's own Railgun. But it was obvious that these artificial railguns were designed to beat the Level 5 in terms of power and firing speed.

"Miko-chan!" he screamed, hoping that amidst the ruckus of the battle, she'd be able to hear him. Sure, she was outnumbered and out-powered, but he had faith that her skill and versatility of her ability would give her a fighting chance.

About half a kilometer to his left, there was another explosion, and he wasted no time running towards it. It didn't take him long to catch a glimpse of her form, gracefully jumping from cyborg to cyborg with the use of her ability, black sand whipping around from her back, stretching outwards like tentacles. Every time she would land on an enemy, her sand would do a quick work of cutting its arms and wings, rendering it unable to fight, before she would use magnetism to throw it at another enemy.

Her movements were quick, unpredictable and deadly. _'Much like lightning,'_ Thor thought, as he stood there mesmerized just as she spun mid-air like a top. She looked like a small tornado of black sand, unstoppable and dangerous, as she disarmed several cyborgs with her move. She landed on the snow lightly and, without pause, shot a railgun towards several unsuspecting enemies.

Thor clenched his fist, coming out of his reverie. Even if she could handle all these enemies without help, he couldn't just let a lady like her fight alone, could he? He was a gentleman after all.

With a manic grin, he charged into the fray as the All Mighty Thor.

–

Mikoto panted lightly as she tried to focus on everything all at once. She was using her EM waves spatial sensing to keep track of all enemies, all the while fighting the ones in front of her. She was getting tired, but the battle was far from over.

There was an unsuspecting collision behind her, and she jerked her attention towards it. She blinked, seeing three FIVE_OVERs on a broken pile about ten meters from her, unresponsive and down for the count. What happened? She hadn't done anything to cause that.

"Yo, Miko-chan," she almost jumped when Thor suddenly landed beside her with playful grin on his face.

"Thor!" it took her less than a second to realize that it was his doing, "What are you doing here?"

"Ah," he began to say, but he suddenly picked her up onto his shoulders and jumped away, leaving her with only enough time to cry in surprise. Not a second later, she watched the spot they were previously standing on being blown of by one of those ridiculously powerful Gatling railgun. She only just registered that he had saved her when he landed on the snow, putting her down and speaking, "I'd love to explain, but now isn't the best time."

They both turned back towards the swarm of fifty-plus FIVE_OVERs.

Mikoto let out a grin, somehow feeling more at ease now that Thor was with her, "Wanna see who can destroy more of these things?"

He replied in kind, "No fair. You got a head-start."

They both took their stance as she declared, "Then we'll both go back to one!"

Her railgun glowed a bright orange in the midst of the white snow.

–

It didn't take them long to defeat all the FIVE_OVERs, although in the end, neither of them were really counting.

In the midst of the rubble, Mikoto stood panting, her hands on her knees as she tried to catch her breath. She was a little dirty, and her appearance was a mess. Standing beside Thor who was practically unscathed, she felt a little irritated. He didn't even break a sweat!

"You alright, Miko-chan?" Thor asked her with a smirk. He must've caught her glare and guessed what she was thinking about.

She felt herself blush a little and straightened up in futile attempt to save face. She brushed off the snow and tiny debris that clung to her clothes, mumbling stubbornly, "I'm fine."

Thor chuckled at this but didn't comment any further.

Once she deemed herself more presentable, she turned back to him and went straight to the point, "What are you doing here, Thor?" she asked. It had been more than a week since he last contacted her. She had tried messaging him, but he didn't reply. She had wanted to call him, but thought that he may be busy and decided against it. Now he suddenly reappears here, in the middle of another fight. "The last time I talked to you, you were in Sweden."

"I was, but things have gotten out of hand around here," he replied, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked at the direction of Othinus and Kamijou's destination, "Besides, I've told you, haven't I? My side isn't with Kamijou-kun."

She studied him for a moment, unsure of how to feel about his words. "You're fighting for Gremlin then?"

"In a way," he said mysteriously, "All remaining Gremlin members are most likely waiting for those two at _that place_. But of course, I don't want anyone to interfere during my fight with Kamijou. I could even get additional experience before our battle."

She felt her chest fill with fear at his declaration. "You're really going to fight him?"

"I'm sorry, Miko-chan, but you can't convince me otherwise."

She looked down at her feet, feeling the crunching of snow beneath her soles. She had known it would eventually happen but the knowledge had not prepared her at all. She swallowed a nervous lump in her throat and looked back at him, meeting his eyes, "Don't kill him."

He smiled sadly at this, "I'm pretty sure I won't be able to beat him, Miko-chan, but I can't promise he'll survive." She felt the dread in her chest as if she was drenched in icy water, and he looked away, avoiding her gaze, "I'm not the final boss after all."

–

–

...voices...

_"__He's gonna be fine... he's gonna be just fine..."_

_"__It sounds like you're trying to convince yourself."_

_"__Shut up, you darn Kami-chibi! If you hadn't fought him he wouldn't be in this state!"_

_"__Don't worry, tanpatsu. Touma always comes back."_

...sounds...

_"__Have you calmed down?"_

_"__...yeah... I'm sorry about what I said earlier..."_

_"__Don't say anything. I understand."_

_"__...do you think he'll make it?"_

_"__...he's already done the impossible. Why not this?"_

...warmth...

_"__Thank goodness..."_

_"__See? I told you Touma's alright!"_

_Soft laughter, "Yeah... yeah, he is..."_

…

…

In his semi-conscious state, the first thing he saw...

_'Biri...biri?'_

...was her face...

"Yeah, he's fine now."

The first thing he heard...

"You're leaving again?"

...was her voice...

"Take care of yourself, okay?"

But the last thing she said...

"...Thor."

...wasn't his name...

–

–

When Touma woke up again to the presence of Index and the recently shrunk Othinus, there was only one thing he could think of.

_'Why isn't she here?'_

–

Mikoto stood outside Touma's door as she listened to their conversations. She wanted to go inside, to see him conscious again, but she didn't have the courage to face him yet.

And so, with her forehead leaning against his door, she whispered, "Get well soon, idiot."

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

**Consider this as my own Between the Lines for NT10 :DD**

I didn't want to post this yet because I haven't really laid out what's going to happen but I know I had to post it before NT11 comes out. **This would not be following canon after NT10 and other manga releases after it so be warned**. Also, I posted the prequel of this **"What Causes a Spark" before the Railgun Daihaseisai arc concluded so I didn't know Saten-san was going to meet Touma XD** so for my convenience, **please pretend they hadn't met hahahaha**

I liked the thought of Othinus and Mikoto getting along because they both want to protect Touma. And of course Thor is just so adorable that i had to put that scene in there XD

In this chapter is also my own interpretation of Mikoto's chapter in NT10. There are lines that I paraphrased from the original NT10 and the most notable one was when Touma thought to himself **"What have I been doing all this time?"** something that Accelerator also once said in the end of the Sisters Arc :DD there wasn't a long explanation for that line so I made my own hahaha and of course it has Kamikoto in the mix :))

**Next chapter would be set before NT8, NT9 and NT10 and shortly after What Causes a Spark.** It won't be for a while so I hope you guys can wait :))

Last thing,** Who do you want Mikoto to end up with? Thor or Touma? **I promise it won't affect the amount of scenes between the pairs. I'm just curious as to how many people now ships MikoThor X333

**If there are errors, please tell me!**

I'll see you all next time :D

**~61wisampa**


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